Vernellia R. RandallProfessor of Law
The University of Dayton

So, just who are the "illegal" in California, and
who has a greater right to live and work here? As he
stated was his goal was on his inaugeration night, President
James Polk stole California (and much more) from Mexico by
violent force, just a few generations ago. Now
we pass laws making it illegal for most Mexicans to live and
work here, and forcibly remove them when they cross the
border "illegally" (having exhausted all legal
means for entry). Let's examine and expose a few of
the racist myths behind the outrage against
"illegals" that's all the rage in California.

Myth: Mexican "illegals"
are "parasites" who want a free-ride from the U.S.

My experience has been the opposite. Everytime I walk in
downtown area of any American city, I am constantly
approached by the poor looking for a handout ("Spare
change for a cup of coffee?" "Spare change for a
bite to eat?" "Spare change for a beer?").
Living and working in downtown Santa Cruz, I am confronted
each and every day by apparently healthy able-bodied young
men wanting a handout.

In Mexican cities, there are more poor than in American
cities. However, in Mexico, it is rare to be asked for a
handout! Don't get me wrong, the Mexican poor are quite
skilled at separating you from your spare change, but they
do it by selling you things: jewelry, souvenirs, etc. Even
the small children sell chicklets chewing gum in exchange
for spare change. Others offer to shine your shoes or
provide some other service. However, it is quite rare to be
asked for a handout in Mexico. Moral of the story? It is a
myth in America that Mexicans want a free ride. The Mexican
poor, in stark contrast to the American poor, hold an
unquestioned assumption that they have to earn their way,
and nearly always offer something in exchange for what they
need.

The southwest and California were built in large part by
undocumented Mexican immigrants. There was a time when
Mexican migrant workers passed freely over the border each
season to labor in the Southwest. In that time, Mexicans
were an important and welcomed source of cheap labor. At the
end of the season, the laborers would return to Mexico. The
border was always open for their return, so they had no
particular reason to remain in "Alte" California
("Upper" California, as the state was called
before the U.S. stole it from Mexico).

Throughout the California Gold Rush, which commenced just
months after the U.S. took over California from Mexico,
Mexican mule trains were crucial in distributing supplies to
mining camps and towns throughout California's Sierra Nevada
mountains. (Incidentally, although the U.S. gave $15 million
to Mexico at the close of the Mexican war as a token for the
takeover by the U.S. of California, New Mexico and other
Mexican provinces, the California Gold Strike produced
hundreds of millions of dollars for America, which was equal
in value to billions of today's dollars).

Today, Mexican workers pay sales taxes and work for
substandard wages at the shittiest jobs in the state. Paying
illegal workers below minimum wage is very common and
results in higher profits for the illegal employer, and
therefore higher taxes paid by the employer. End result:
worker gets much lower pay (essentially payroll withholding)
which results more taxes being paid into the U.S. and State
treasuries (due to higher profits for the illegal
employers). Many illegal employers know their Mexican
laborers are illegal, but nonetheless withhold payroll taxes
from their paychecks, and rather than pay those taxes to the
government, simply pocket them. Quite often the employer
will not realize that the Mexican is illegal, and so will go
ahead and withhold payroll taxes and pay them to the
government.

Since illegal Mexican workers live in fear of
deportation, they rarely seek social services or file for
income tax returns for fear of being discovered and deported
(the only exceptions are emergency medical care and primary
education, the two things too urgent to forgo. It's no
coincidence that California recently passed a law requiring
medical care providers and schools to deny services to
illegal immigrants - those are the only two social services
they use (in spite of the contributions they make to the
economy), because those 2 are the only ones they're willing
to risk deportation to use. Justice prevailed - a federal
court declared the law unconstitutional).

The typical illegal Mexican immigrant is an honest worker
struggling for a better life for himself and his family, not
a violent criminal.

In 1995, an article in the San Jose Mercury News reported
that it is quite common for families to be divided by the
border. For example, the father and one of the sons are
legal residents, while the mother and another son are in
Mexico and unable immigrate legally. The one father and son
cannot afford to give up their jobs in California to return
to Mexico, and the rest of the family is unsuccessful at
immigrating legally, so the family must live apart.

The anti-immigrant folks never seem to give a second
thought to rich U.S. farmers who knowingly employ
undocumented workers at sub-standard wages (and in
sub-standard conditions). Such employers are a major source
of the draw of immigrants into California, but are rarely if
ever portrayed as criminals who deserve to be "severely
punished". They are indeed breaking the law by
employing undocumented workers, but this law is lightly
enforced if at all whereas it is becoming quite fashionable
for politicians in America to call for increasing efforts at
enforcing laws against illegal border crossings (and for
Usenet demagogues to scream for severe punishment of
"illegals").

In my career in California's high-tech center known as
Silicon Valley, I have noticed that the janitors are almost
universally Mexicans, and driving through the agricultural
areas of California, the laborers breaking their backs in
the fields (often covered with carcinogenic pesticides) are
mostly Mexican. It seems to me that the Mexicans have really
gotten the bottom of the barrel in our society.

So how is it that Mexican immigrants are responsible for
all of our economic problems and other troubles, and why all
the outrage? To me it bears a chilling resemblance to the
way Hitler was able to dupe all of Germany into believing
that all their problems were caused by the Jews.

We need to stop being spoonfed our issues by politicians,
and stop letting the demagogues push our emotional buttons,
and look at the real source of our problems, such as the
fact that 50% of what the government collects from us in
corporate and individual income taxes is spent on
destruction (the military), rather than on building a
peacetime social and industrial infrastructure, and a very
significant sector of our economy is the "defense"
(war) industry, which, unlike peacetime industries, drags
down rather than fuels the economy. Why is there no outrage
over the fact that the Trident IV first-strike nuclear
weapon is still being funded at $300 million a year, when
the cold war is long over? Why is there no outrage over the
fact that 75% of all international weapons sales are made by
the U.S., and 90% of our customers are non-democratic
regimes? Why is it that the Mexican worker and welfare
mothers are getting all the blame for this country's
problems????

It never ceases to amaze and disgust me to see grown
adults blaming Mexican schoolchildren and pregnant women for
their economic woes, while monthly Space Shuttle missions
costing billions (often on "secret military"
missions) are not given a second thought.

Always Under Construction!

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Last Updated:
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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Thanks to Derrick Bell and his pioneer work:
Race, Racism and American Law (1993).